Call for Backup - Upgrade Guide

Superior Numbers - In the Margins Redux

<h6 style="text-align: right;">(<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama&#039;s Reach" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama&#039;s Reach</a> | Art by <a href="https://johnavonart.com/">John Avon</a>)</h6>
<h1>Animist's Awakening</h1>
A young animist emerges into a strange, new land. A vast continent of diversity and splendor, within which she is eager to make her mark upon the annals of history. With her, she brings a library's worth of knowledge foreign to this land: a series of spells, guaranteed to bring the bountiful harvests of the future to the present, and a host of new possibilities to the area.
But as she descends into this new civilization, she finds it difficult to spread the teachings of her youth; the farmers do well enough to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cultivate" href="#" target="_blank">Cultivate</a> their crops, and it appears that <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama&#039;s Reach" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama&#039;s Reach</a> had already descended across the land. Nobody wants to purchase any of her spellbooks, or learn the ancient secrets that she had labored so hard to unravel as a youth. They are content in their ways and will continue to be until their end.
But she frets not, for the <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Edge of Autumn" href="#" target="_blank">Edge of Autumn</a> nears, heralding a perfect opportunity for her to showcase her skills....
<hr />
<h2>Planting Seeds</h2>
It's no secret that green is the king of ramp. It has a near-monopoly on mana dorks, the most efficient method of ramp in the game (excluding all of the broken artifacts, like the Moxen, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sol Ring" href="#" target="_blank">Sol Ring</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mana Crypt" href="#" target="_blank">Mana Crypt</a>), and it only gets more as time goes on. But it's pretty clear what EDH players most often seek, and that is land ramp.
Five of the six most popular green cards in the format are land ramp cards: <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cultivate" href="#" target="_blank">Cultivate</a>, in 48% of eligible decks, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama&#039;s Reach" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama&#039;s Reach</a>, in 38%, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Farseek" href="#" target="_blank">Farseek</a>, in 32%, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rampant Growth" href="#" target="_blank">Rampant Growth</a>, in 31%, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sakura-Tribe Elder" href="#" target="_blank">Sakura-Tribe Elder</a>, also in 31%. This suite of land ramp cards is so ubiquitous, it feels like every single game will have at least one or two of them in it. There's a lot of good stuff here, and we will talk about them, but green has a litany of incredible and underappreciated land ramp cards that we can run in place of or alongside them.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Rampant Growth"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Cultivate"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Farseek"></div></div>
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rampant Growth" href="#" target="_blank">Rampant Growth</a> remains one of the most iconic cards in the format and within the game as a whole. It sets the general standard for the level of efficiency that players want their ramp spells to achieve: two mana to ramp by one mana. Heck, the very term "ramp" comes from Rampant Growth. Although it lacks the utility that some of the alternatives have, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rampant Growth" href="#" target="_blank">Rampant Growth</a> still has maintained iconic status with its simplicity and elegance.
Next up is <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cultivate" href="#" target="_blank">Cultivate</a> and its Arcane counterpart, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama&#039;s Reach" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama&#039;s Reach</a>. These two are the most popular green cards in the entire format, and they can be pretty darn potent. Both give a little extra utility by putting a land into your hand in addition to putting one onto the battlefield, a pseudo-cantrip effect that makes up for the loss in efficiency and the potential harm to your tempo. But this extra card in hand isn't always useful, and many players (myself included) have found that these don't pull their weight unless you can ensure that you'll make use out of that extra land, like in a deck with 4 or 5 colors.
Finally, we have <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Farseek" href="#" target="_blank">Farseek</a>, the 4th most popular green card in the format, and one that has managed to break free from the shackles of the word "basic". Farseek allows you to grab any Plains, Island, Swamp, or Mountain, affording you the extra freedom of grabbing nonbasics that may have these subtypes. In decks with a bit of a higher budget, this makes Farseek a little better at color-fixing than the alternatives, but not all decks can benefit from that.
<hr />
<h2>Sprouting Trees</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Edge of Autumn"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Search for Tomorrow"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Into the North"></div></div>
If you're not too attached to the simplicity of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rampant Growth" href="#" target="_blank">Rampant Growth</a>, a personal favorite replacement of mine is <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Edge of Autumn" href="#" target="_blank">Edge of Autumn</a>. Although <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Edge of Autumn" href="#" target="_blank">Edge of Autumn</a> does place an additional rider on the base utility of the spell by requiring you to have four or fewer lands to actually ramp, it makes up for that with a cycling ability that allows you to draw an extra card when you need it. This rider doesn't affect much overall - you probably aren't ramping if you have five lands anyways - and the boon that comes alongside it will ensure that <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Edge of Autumn" href="#" target="_blank">Edge of Autumn</a> is never a dead draw.
The biggest drawback to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cultivate" href="#" target="_blank">Cultivate</a> is that it can very easily interrupt your tempo. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Search For Tomorrow" href="#" target="_blank">Search For Tomorrow</a>, on the flip side, does the exact opposite: at first glance, the mana cost is identical to that of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cultivate" href="#" target="_blank">Cultivate</a>'s, but the Suspend ability pulls a lot of weight on this card. Suspending it on turn 1 and casting an <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Edge of Autumn" href="#" target="_blank">Edge of Autumn</a> on turn 2 will leave you with a whopping five mana on turn 3, all by making use of a turn that often would be wasted otherwise. It also allows you to ramp on curve while still casting important two-drops like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Crashing Drawbridge" href="#" target="_blank">Crashing Drawbridge</a>!
The return of the Snow supertype in Kaldheim gives a pretty exciting opportunity for the seldom-seen <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Into the North" href="#" target="_blank">Into the North</a>. Like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Farseek" href="#" target="_blank">Farseek</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Into the North" href="#" target="_blank">Into the North</a> isn't bound by the pesky word "basic", allowing you to get any handy utility Snow land, like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Scrying Sheets" href="#" target="_blank">Scrying Sheets</a>. Using <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Into the North" href="#" target="_blank">Into the North</a> to fetch a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Woodland Chasm" href="#" target="_blank">Woodland Chasm</a> is ostensibly identical to using <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Farseek" href="#" target="_blank">Farseek</a> to get a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bayou" href="#" target="_blank">Bayou</a>, just several hundred dollars cheaper.
<hr />
<h2>Imbuing the Land</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Vastwood Surge"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Migration Path"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Skyshroud Claim"></div></div>
But not all needs are covered by mere two-drop ramp spells. Some decks have a commander that's a little thirstier for mana, with a higher mana curve that demands more color-fixing. When that happens, I feel like too many players turn away from the four-drop ramp spells, but when you use them in conjunction with their cheaper counterparts, they can accelerate you considerably.
The classic example of this is <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Explosive Vegetation" href="#" target="_blank">Explosive Vegetation</a>, but several versions have been printed with a little extra utility, especially lately. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Vastwood Surge" href="#" target="_blank">Vastwood Surge</a> can give you a small boost in the late game if you kick it, for example, and like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Edge of Autumn" href="#" target="_blank">Edge of Autumn</a>, you can cycle away <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Migration Path" href="#" target="_blank">Migration Path</a> for another card that you might need later. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Circuitous Route" href="#" target="_blank">Circuitous Route</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Skyshroud Claim" href="#" target="_blank">Skyshroud Claim</a> both have the potential to give you a little extra mana-fixing, and using <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Skyshroud Claim" href="#" target="_blank">Skyshroud Claim</a> to put two nonbasic Forests into play untapped allows you to use the mana to cast more spells!
<hr />
<h2>Summoning the Fauna</h2>
<a href="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/164.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-60386 size-large" src="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/164-1024x752.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="752" srcset="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/164-1024x752.jpg 1024w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/164-300x220.jpg 300w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/164-768x564.jpg 768w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/164.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
<h6 style="text-align: right;">(<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Migration Path" href="#" target="_blank">Migration Path</a> | Art by <a href="https://www.artstation.com/rutkowski">Grzegorz Rutkowski</a>)</h6>
Land ramp is something that's really easy to just forget about. Throw in <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rampant Growth" href="#" target="_blank">Rampant Growth</a>, <a href="https://edhrec.com/cards/sakura-tribe-elder">Steve</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Farseek" href="#" target="_blank">Farseek</a>, maybe [elThree Visits[/el] if you're feeling spicy, and you're done. But there are so many great land ramp cards that are being slept on, and if you look a little harder for them, you can have a deck that's a little bit more unique and a little more powerful. I know <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Edge of Autumn" href="#" target="_blank">Edge of Autumn</a>'s cycling ability has gotten me out of some really tough situations.
Commander players especially fall into the trap of having too high of a mana curve and end up with slow games as a result: many of these ramp spells, such as the four-mana ones mentioned earlier, can abate this while still enabling those good old-fashioned <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Shivan Dragon" href="#" target="_blank">Shivan Dragon</a>s. Turn 2 ramp spell into a turn 3 <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Skyshroud Claim" href="#" target="_blank">Skyshroud Claim</a> can give you seven mana on turn 4, making higher-costed commanders way more accessible. Below is my <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Prossh, Skyraider of Kher" href="#" target="_blank">Prossh, Skyraider of Kher</a> decklist, which utilizes the more expensive land ramp cards for this purpose.
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Prossh, Skyraider who Cares" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
[/Commander]
[Planeswalkers]
*1 Sarkhan the Mad
*1 Vraska, Relic Seeker
[/Planeswalkers]
[Creatures]
*1 Anger
*1 Blood Artist
*1 Brood Monitor
*1 Butcher of Malakir
*1 Carrion Feeder
*1 Deep Forest Hermit
*1 Dragon Broodmother
*1 Dryad Arbor
*1 Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
*1 Hellkite Charger
*1 Liliana&#039;s Standard Bearer
*1 Mycoloth
*1 Nacatl War-Pride
*1 Phyrexian Plaguelord
*1 Sadistic Hypnotist
*1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
*1 Scourge of the Throne
*1 Smothering Abomination
*1 Syr Konrad, the Grim
*1 Thermopod
*1 Titan Hunter
*1 Vindictive Vampire
*1 Woe Strider
*1 Zulaport Cutthroat
[/Creatures]
[Sorceries]
*1 Edge of Autumn
*1 Explosive Vegetation
*1 Fungal Sprouting
*1 Into the North
*1 Migration Path
*1 Nature&#039;s Lore
*1 Rampant Growth
*1 Search for Tomorrow
*1 Skyshroud Claim
*1 Sylvan Offering
*1 Three Visits
[/Sorceries]
[Lands]
*1 Blighted Woodland
*1 Bloodfell Caves
*1 Command Tower
*1 Evolving Wilds
*1 Exotic Orchard
*1 Grove of the Burnwillows
*1 Kessig Wolf Run
*1 Kher Keep
*1 Llanowar Wastes
*1 Reflecting Pool
*9 Snow-Covered Forest
*6 Snow-Covered Mountain
*7 Snow-Covered Swamp
*1 Sulfurous Springs
*1 Temple of Abandon
*1 Temple of Malady
*1 Temple of Malice
*1 Terramorphic Expanse
[/Lands]
[Enchantments]
*1 Bastion of Remembrance
*1 Beastmaster Ascension
*1 Deathreap Ritual
*1 Dictate of Erebos
*1 Elemental Mastery
*1 Fecundity
*1 Footfall Crater
*1 Outpost Siege
*1 Pattern of Rebirth
*1 Rhythm of the Wild
*1 Wild Growth
[/Enchantments]
[Artifacts]
*1 Altar of Dementia
*1 Ashnod&#039;s Altar
*1 Eldrazi Monument
*1 Golgari Signet
*1 Gruul Signet
*1 Lightning Greaves
*1 Rakdos Signet
*1 Skullclamp
*1 Sol Ring
[/Artifacts]
[Instants]
*1 Artifact Mutation
*1 Beast Within
*1 Bedevil
*1 Fungal Rebirth
*1 Harrow
[/Instants]"></div>

<hr />
What're your favorite unorthodox ramp cards in EDH? Let me know in the comments or elsewhere on social media, I'm always looking for new inclusions!

vastwood surge

Call for Backup - Upgrade Guide

Superior Numbers - In the Margins Redux

Staple Remover - Cultivate + Kodama's Reach